How the Deep Web Works

The deep Web is only getting deeper. Its store of human knowledge and trivialities grows more massive every day, complicating our efforts to make sense of it all. In the end, that's perhaps the biggest challenge behind the Internet that we've created.

Programmers will continue to improve search engine algorithms, making them better at delving into deeper layers of the Web. In doing so, they'll help researchers and businesses connect and cross-reference information in ways that were never possible before.

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At the same time, the primary job of a smart search engine is not to simply find information. What you really want it to do is find the most relevant information. Otherwise, you're left awash in a sea of cluttered data that leaves you wishing you had never clicked on that search button.

That's the problem of so-called big data. Big data is the name for sets of data that are so large that they become unmanageable and incoherent. Because the Internet is growing so quickly, our whole world is overrun with data, and it's hard for anyone to make sense of it all -- even all of those powerful, all-knowing computers at Bing and Google headquarters.

As the Internet grows, every large company spends more and more money on data management and analysis, both to keep their own organizations functioning and also to obtain competitive advantages over others. Mining and organizing the deep Web is a vital part of those strategies. Those companies that learn to leverage this data for their own uses will survive and perhaps change the world with new technologies. Those that rely only on the surface Web won't be able to compete.

In the meantime, the deep Web will continue to perplex and fascinate everyone who uses the Internet. It contains an enthralling amount of knowledge that could help us evolve technologically and as a species when connected to other bits of information. And of course, its darker side will always be lurking, too, just as it always does in human nature. The deep Web speaks to the fathomless, scattered potential of not only the Internet, but the human race, too.